Transplant news
Poppy initially received peritoneal dialysis for ten hours a night, six nights a week. The gravity of the situation started to sink in with Gavin and Becky as they came to terms with the fact that she would eventually need a kidney transplant.
While her first transplant wasn’t working well, Poppy was allowed home on 31 March 2021 and, with 9 per cent kidney function, she enjoyed a period of 14 months off dialysis. She then had to resume dialysis treatment in May 2022, but there was good news exactly 12 months later.
“On 3 May this year, the fourth anniversary of her diagnosis, we got the call saying they’d found a match,” recalls Gavin. “That day, Poppy walked into the hospital herself, wearing her Kidney Research UK t-shirt and pulling her little purple suitcase. She had the transplant on the 4th and came home on the 16th. The consultant said it was the fastest she’d ever sent a patient home.”
“I’ve no idea why,” laughs Gavin, who in addition to the twins has two other children – daughter Gabrielle, 17, and son Higham, 11. “When I asked her, she just said, ‘Because it’s his name, Dad!’ She’s so funny.”